Saturday, May 22, 2010

Happy 30th Anniversary Pac-Man

What sort of a retro blogger would I be if I didn't wish Pac-Man a happy 30th Anniversary? To celebrate, here's seven cool trivia tidbits I've learned this week about the only video game that truly captured my heart.

It is also one of the few things I have in common with my baseball-loving, seafood-eating, beer-brewing hubby. We realized this when it came time to pick a cool wedding cake topper. I found out he wasn't a fan of Smurfs and wasn't really down with Dear Daniel and Hello Kitty (the famous Sanrio couple) -- my first cake topper ideas. We went with Pac-Man and Ms. Pac-Man bride and groom figurines purchased on eBay for $50 a few months before the wedding.

7 Things You Might Not Know About Pac-Man

1. Original name for Pac-Man was Puck Man, but fearing Americans would switch-up the "P" with an "F", Namco decided to change the name.

2. Pac-Man's simplistic shape was based upon a pizza pie missing one slice of pizza.

3. The game was developed with women and couples in mind. Most of the original video games at that time were male-oriented which focused on shooting, space, aliens, etc.

4. Designers felt that using food-munching as one of the game's objectives would attract female game players.

5. An estimated 10 billion+ games of Pac-Man have been played worldwide.

6. "Pac-Man Fever" by Buckner & Garcia reached #9 on the Billboard charts and sold 2.5 million copies. Their record label was so impressed with Jerry Buckner & Gary Garcia's fun lyrics, they commissioned the Akron, Ohio duo to create an entire album consisting of video game songs.

Happy 30th Pac Man!! That's pretty cool that it was originally geared toward women...probably why I was the Pac Man QUEEN back in the day! LOL I spent HOURS of fun (and quarters) at the local mart playing this with friends.

Oh I always loved Ms. Packman. I was never very good at it, but I still even now at 60 would like one of those games. Somehow it facinated me. I enjoyed your blog, thank you for letting me visit. http://amazingcouponanddiscountdeals.blogspot.comhttp://joininandgogreen.blogspot.com